Report from Emergency HR Delegation on Criminalization and Political Prisoners

March 26 - April 2, 2019La Voz de los de Abajo with Alliance for Global Justice and CODEPINK, all members of the Honduras Solidarity Network sent an emergency human right delegation to Honduras focused on following up on criminalization and violence since the November 2017 electoral fraud crisis began. 

We visited political prisoners, Edwin Espinal and Raúl Álvarez, indigenous and campesino communities criminalized and attacked for their struggle, human rights organizations, families and supporters of murdered and criminalized journalists. 

LINK TO REPORT IN ENGLISH- El informe en español estará publicado pronto.

Support for political prisoners  and against criminalization of
protest at a vigil in front of the US Embassy

Nacaome REDEHSUR human rights defenders with delegation after a vigil
for assassinated journalist Gabriel Hernandez

Two of the three political prisoners being held pre-trial in prisons
Edwin and Raúl 

Report from Honduras April 2018 Delegation

In April 2018, La Voz de los de Abajo and Alliance for Global Justice, both members of the Honduras Solidarity Network, led a delegation to Honduras concerned about the political prisoners and ongoing human rights crisis.

Here is the link to the final report from the delegation.

Meeting with political prisoner
foto by Dunia Perez

Delegation Report from November Election Crisis in Honduras

Report from La Voz de los de Abajo, CODEPINK and Marin Task Force on the Americas Human Rights Observation Delegation during Honduran Elections 2017

Delegation Report: Honduran Elections 2017

Tegucigalpa protest 

Singer Karla Lara in Tegucigalpa 

Police and Military Tegucigalpa 

Photos by Chris Jeske

Delegation Report: Honduran Elections 2017

In Defense of Father Ismael "Melo" Moreno & of the Honduran Students

Statement of the Honduras Solidarity Networks In Defense of Padre Melo and the Honduran Students
En Español and in English 

Padre Melo
photo from Ignaciansolidarity.net

La Voz de los de Abajo is sharing the HSN Statement in Spanish and English at the link above. 
Students in Honduras' universities and high schools have been fighting the privatization of education and the authoritarian anti-democratic administration of the National Autonomous University of Honduras as well as the rule by the coup government's Ministry of Education in the public schools. When our delegation was in Honduras in March, we talked to students at the National Autonomous University of Honduras and learned about their movement.  Just as it does in the face of all the movements in resistance,  the government answers the students with violence and even assassination, reneging on agreements and refusing to dialogue. When human rights groups, political opposition members and members of the peoples' movements defend the students, they are threatened. La Voz de los de Abajo is a member of the Honduras Solidarity Network in North America and is working with other organizations in the US to cut off US aid to the repressive Honduran government and we also hold the Honduran government responsible for the safety of Padre Melo, Berta Caceres' family, Berta Oliva of COFADEH, Miriam Miranda of Ofraneh, Doris Gutierrez of PINU, the student leaders and the many many others at risk. 

University Student Protest
foto Honduras Tierra Libre

Declaration - Declaración La Voz de los de Abajo March/Marzo 2017

English follows the Spanish

Declaración de La Voz de los de Abajo ChicagoTierra y Territorios: Campesinos y Pueblos Indígenas en Honduras siguen bajo ataque

     Del 26 de febrero al 11 de marzo de 2017, La Voz de los de Abajo organización con sede en Chicago, coordinó una delegación a Honduras de miembros y dirigentes de organizaciones de derechos humanos, de justicia ambiental, de jóvenes y estudiantes, religiosas, sindicales y solidarias, para la conmemoración del aniversario del asesinato de Berta Cáceres Flores.Nuestra delegación se reunió con defensores hondureños de derechos humanos y con organizaciones y comunidades que defienden los derechos a la tierra y a los territorios, entre ellas COPINH, la CNTC y OFRANEH.     El propósito de esta declaración es destacar y denunciar ejemplos específicos de violaciones a los derechos humanos y las amenazas, violencia y acciones contra las organizaciones mencionadas y contra los defensores hondureños que los acompañan. También reafirmamos enfáticamente nuestra oposición al financiamiento por el gobierno de Estados Unidos que contribuye a la militarización y al clima de inseguridad y violencia en el país. Destacamos también que la investigación sobre el asesinato de Berta debe incluir la investigación de posibles vínculos con el ejército estadounidense de algunos de los acusados de su muerte. Los testimonios que recibimos durante esta delegación confirman los informes de otras organizaciones internacionales de derechos humanos de que existe una colusión preocupante entre las élites locales y nacionales, los proyectos hídricos y mineros, el crimen organizado y el aparato estatal.

COPINH y la comunidad de Río Blanco, Intibucá     Un año después del asesinato de Berta Cáceres, su familia y su organización continúan exigiendo una investigación seria, independiente del gobierno hondureño, sobre quién ordenó, planificó y llevó a cabo el asesinato. Los líderes y miembros del COPINH (Consejo Cívico de los Pueblos Indígenas de Honduras) informan que continúan recibiendo amenazas de daño físico, atentados contra sus vidas y amenazas de criminalización contra la organización. Visitamos la comunidad de Río Blanco donde se encuentra el proyecto hidroeléctrico DESA. Los miembros de la comunidad relataron sus experiencias de ser atacados físicamente, amenazados y acosados por empleados de DESA y por fuerzas policiales y militares debido a su oposición al proyecto DESA Agua Zarca. Expresaron su temor de nuevos ataques. Nuestro grupo también asistió a una conferencia de prensa en Tegucigalpa el 1 de marzo de 2017 para Suyapa Martínez del Centro de Estudios de la Mujer en Honduras (CEM-H). La Sra. Martínez es una defensora de derechos humanos acusada de difamación por la empresa constructora DESA en relación con el asesinato de Berta Cáceres. Cabe señalar que es ampliamente difundido, declarado públicamente e publicado en Honduras que algunos representantes del DESA en sus más altos niveles amenazaron directamente a Berta y deben ser investigados. Algunos empleados de DESA de nivel inferior están entre los arrestados en el caso de Berta. Aunque un juez rechazó recientemente los cargos de difamación, el caso de la señora Martinez es considerado como un ejemplo más de intentos de intimidar y silenciar a los defensores de derechos humanos, abogados y periodistas. También se considera parte de un intento descarado de silenciar el llamado a una investigación independiente del asesinato de Berta Caceres.

La CNTC y la comunidad "9 de Julio" en La Paz.     Nuestro grupo visitó la comunidad de la CNTC (Centro Nacional de Trabajadores del Campo) en Tutule llamada "9 de Julio". Esta comunidad ha sido desalojada 26 veces, al menos 3 veces con violencia, incluyendo la más reciente el 13 de enero de 2017. Los miembros de La Voz también visitaron la comunidad después de un desalojo violento previo en mayo de 2016. Estos desalojos se caracterizaron por asaltos masivos con gases lacrimógenos y con policías y unidades militares disparando munición real a los campesinos. El 13 de enero, Víctor Vázquez, presidente del Consejo Indígena de Simpinula, La Paz, y líder de la organización Lenca MILPAH en La Paz, recibió un disparo en la rodilla mientras observaba y grababa video del desalojo. Al mismo tiempo, un miembro del grupo campesino sufrió una seria lesión en la mano por un proyectil de gas lacrimógeno disparado directamente contra los campesinos y una mujer de la comunidad sufrió un aborto involuntario. 
     En el desalojo en mayo de 2016, dos miembros de la comunidad CNTC sufrieron heridas de bala. Este reciente desalojo ocurrió antes de que se recibiera una decisión judicial por un recurso presentado a principios de enero por el Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos (COFADEH) y otros representantes legales de los campesinos. La tierra estaba abandonada y en barbecho hasta que el grupo campesino, formado por familias jóvenes sin tierra, comenzara a trabajarla. Ellos construyeron un sistema de agua, sembraron cultivos de hortalizas para desarrollar la producción agrícola sostenible y construyeron pequeñas casas con jardines de flores. Fue entonces cuando una de las élites locales, Carlos Arriaga, empezó a reclamar la tierra. Arriaga es un pariente del alcalde de la ciudad de Tutule, Will Guevara, quien ha estado presente en varios desalojos.      Tras el desalojo del 13 de enero, Arriaga apareció en la televisión nacional denunciando a las familias campesinas y pidiendo al gobierno hondureño que lo ayudara a deshacerse de ellas. Han habido algunas negociaciones con Arriaga pero él ha insistido en que los campesinos tendrían que comprarle la tierra a precios exorbitantes por acre para reembolsarle por "mejoras". Sin embargo, la tierra es "ejidal" o tierra pública elegible para la distribución a los sin tierra. Los campesinos han hecho mejoras significativas en la tierra, ademas de que han tenido que reconstruir sus casas y replantar cultivos en numerosas ocasiones. Este caso es emblemático de la situación del campo para los campesinos, sobre todo en las regiones indígenas del país donde los miembros de la élite económica y política están vinculados al poder político y están interesados en los ingresos que pueden recibir de los mega-proyectos mineros y hidroeléctricos.        Organizaciones campesinas como la CNTC piden que se ponga fin a la criminalización de los campesinos (hay miles en el sistema de justicia penal por "delitos de tierra") y hay necesidad de una nueva reforma agraria integral para resolver la urgente necesidad de miles de campesinos pobres y sin tierra  para para cultivar. Sin tal reforma y un fin a la represión hay poca esperanza de lograr una seguridad en términos de alimentación o de la integridad física de los que viven en el campo.

OFRANEH y la comunidad de Barra Vieja     La comunidad Garífuna de Barra Vieja, cerca de Tela, Atlántida, ha existido por más de 100 años como una de las 48 comunidades garífunas localizadas en la costa norte de Honduras. La comunidad mantiene su lengua materna y su cultura económica y social. A partir de 2007 las elites económicas y políticas comenzaron a tratar de desplazar a la comunidad de 127 personas para desarrollar proyectos de mega-turismo en las playas prístinas del área de Tela. Líderes de la comunidad dijeron a nuestra delegación que a partir de 2013 estos intentos se hicieron más agresivos ya que el exclusivo Indura Beach Resort y Golf Club (ahora conectado a la cadena Hilton) fue construido en tierra que también formaba parte de Barra Vieja y otras comunidades cercanas. Vimos la estación de guardia con guardias armados y una cerca que corre hasta el borde del agua y evita que los aldeanos puedan acceder a la playa o las palmeras (manaca) que necesitan para renovar sus casas. Los y las estudiantes jóvenes de Barra Vieja no pueden caminar la distancia más corta a lo largo de la playa para llegar a su escuela en la aldea siguiente y tienen que conseguir el transporte o caminar una distancia larga y desprotegida para llegar a la escuela.       En 2014 se emitieron órdenes de desalojo contra la comunidad. La policía intentó desalojar a la comunidad en abril de 2014 sin éxito y en septiembre de 2014 un gran contingente de policías y militares fuertemente armados entró en la comunidad obligando a los residentes a salir de su casa. Varios residentes ancianos murieron en los días después del desalojo, mientras muchos residentes volvieron otra vez para recuperar sus hogares y la tierra. OFRANEH expuso el hecho de que la propia orden de desalojo no cumplía con los requisitos legales y también que es un hecho que el artículo 169 de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo, que protege los derechos de las comunidades indígenas, se aplica a los garífunas de Honduras. Los cargos de robo de tierras contra los líderes y residentes de Barra VIeja fueron anulados en la corte, pero los funcionarios y promotores no han renunciado a los esfuerzos legales y extrajudiciales para desplazar a la comunidad; Muchos de los aldeanos han abandonado temporalmente sus hogares debido a las constantes amenazas y acoso. 

      Consideramos que estos tres casos son indicativos de las crisis de derechos humanos en curso en Honduras que se apoyan en la impunidad y la intimidación. Hay otros casos serios que no podemos tratar hoy en esta declaración.  Hemos visto la declaración del vicepresidente estadounidense Pence después de la visita del presidente Hernández a Estados Unidos el 23 de marzo de 2017. Nuestra experiencia y la experiencia de las personas y organizaciones hondureñas que conocemos, contradicen la afirmación del Sr. Pence de que ha habido "importantes avances que ha hecho Honduras en los últimos dos años" en el fortalecimiento de la seguridad ciudadana, y en contra de la corrupción, y seguiremos trabajando para detener la ayuda militar y de seguridad de Estados Unidos que compra balas y gases lacrimógenos para su uso en contra el pueblo hondureño.

La Voz de los de Abajo Chicago27 de marzo de 2017
Chicago, Il EUA

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Declaration by La Voz de los de Abajo Chicago
Land and Territories: Campesino and Indigenous Peoples in Honduras Are Still Under Attack

     From February 26 - March 11, 2017,  the Chicago based organization La Voz de los de Abajo coordinated a delegation to Honduras of Chicago student/youth,community environmental justice, religious, human rights, union and solidarity organizations for the one year commemoration of the assassination of Berta Caceres Flores.      Our delegation met with Honduran human rights defenders and with organizations and communities defending land and territory rights including COPINH, the CNTC and OFRANEH. 

     The purpose of this statement is to highlight and denounce specific examples of violations of human rights and the threats, violence and actions against the organizations mentioned and the Honduran human rights defenders who accompany them. We also emphatically reaffirm our opposition to U.S. government funding which contributes to militarization and the climate of insecurity and violence in the country. We wish to emphasize as well that the investigation into Berta’s murder must include the investigation of possible ties to the US military of some of those accused of her death. The testimony we received during this delegation affirms the reports of other international human rights organizations that there is a disturbing collusion of forces between local and national elites, water and mining projects, organized crime and the state apparatus. 

COPINH and the community of Rio Blanco, Intibucá     One year after Berta Caceres’ murder, her family and organization continue to demand a serious investigation independent from the Honduran government into who ordered, planned and carried out the assassination. COPINH (Indigenous Peoples Civic Council of Honduras) leaders and members report that they continue to receive threats of physical harm, attempts against their lives, and threats of criminalization against the organization. We visited the Rio Blanco community where the DESA hydroelectric project is located. Community members related their experiences of being physically attacked, threatened and harassed by DESA employees, police and military forces because of their opposition to the DESA Agua Zarca project. They expressed their fears of further attacks. 
     Our group also attended a press conference in Tegucigalpa on March 1, 2017 for Suyapa Martinez of the Center for Women’s Studies in Honduras (CEM-H). Ms. Martinez is a human rights defender accused of defamation by the DESA construction company related to the murder of Berta Caceres.  It should be noted that it is widely held, stated publicly and printed in Honduras that DESA representatives at its highest levels directly threatened Berta and should be investigated. Some lower level DESA employees are among those arrested in Berta’s case. Although a judge recently rejected the charges, Ms. Martinez’s case is considered to be one more example of attempts to intimidate and silence human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists. It is also considered to be part of a blatant attempt to silence the call for an independent investigation of Berta Caceres’ murder. 

The CNTC and the “9 de Julio” community in La Paz.     Our group visited the CNTC (National Center for Farm Workers) community in Tutule called “9 de Julio”. This community has been evicted 26 times, at least 3 times with violence including most recently on January 13, 2017.  Members of La Voz also visited the community after previous violent eviction in May, 2016. These evictions were characterized by massive tear gas assaults and police and military units firing live ammunition at the campesinos. 
     On January 13, Victor Vazquez the President of the Indigenous Council of Simpinula, La Paz and leader of the Lenca organization MILPAH in La Paz was shot in the knee as he observed and video taped the eviction. At the same time a member of the campesino group suffered a serious hand injury from a tear gas projectile fired directly at the campesinos, and a woman from the community suffered a miscarriage. 
     In the eviction in May 2016 two members of the CNTC community suffered gunshot wounds. This recent eviction occurred before any  court decision was received for an appeal submitted in early January by the Committee of the Families of the Disappeared Detainees (COFADEH) and other legal representatives of the campesinos.  The land was abandoned and fallow before the campesino group, made up of young families with no land, began working. They built  a water system, planted vegetable crops to develop sustainable agriculture production and built small homes with flower gardens. That is when one of the local elite, Carlos Arriaga, began pressing a claim to the land. Arriaga is a relative of the mayor of the town of Tutule, Will Guevara, who has been present at several evictions. After the January 13th eviction, Arriaga appeared on national television denouncing the campesino families and calling on the Honduran government to help him get rid of them. There have been some negotiations with Arriaga but he has insisted that the campesinos would have to buy the land from him at exorbitant prices per acre to reimburse him for “improvements”.  However, the land is ‘ejidal” or public land eligible for distribution to the landless.  The campesinos have made significant improvements to the land, as well as having had to rebuild their homes and replant crops numerous times. 
     This case is emblematic of the situation in the countryside for the campesinos, especially in the indigenous regions of the country where members of the economic and political elite are is tied to political power and economic gain from mining and hydroelectric mega-projects. 
     Campesino organizations such as the CNTC call for a stop to the criminalization of the campesinos (there are thousands in the criminal justice system for “land crimes”) and for the passing of a new, integral agrarian reform to resolve the urgent need of thousands of landless and poor small farmers for land to cultivate. Without such a reform and end to the repression there is little hope for food and physical security in the countryside. 

OFRANEH and the community of Barra Vieja       The Garifuna community of Barra Vieja near Tela, Atlantida has existed for more than 100 years as one of some 48 Garifuna communities located on the northern coast of Honduras.  The community maintains its native language and economic and social culture.  Beginning in 2007 the economic and political elites began trying to displace the 127 person community in order to develop mega-tourism projects on the pristine beaches of the Tela area. Community leaders told our delegation that beginning in 2013 these attempts became more aggressive as the exclusive Indura Beach Resort and Golf Club (now connected to Hilton) was built on land that was also part of Barra Vieja and other nearby communities. We saw the guard station with armed guards and a fence that runs all the way to the water’s edge and keeps the villagers from being able to access the beach or the palms (manaca) that they need to refurbish their homes. School children from Barra Vieja cannot walk the shorter distance along the beach to their school in the next village but have to get transportation or walk a long, unprotected distance to get to school.  
     In 2014 eviction orders were issued against the community. Police tried to evict the community in April of 2014 without success and in September 2014 a large contingent of heavily armed police and military entered the community forcing the residents out of their home. Several elderly residents died in the days after the eviction, while many residents returned again to recuperate their homes and land. OFRANEH exposed the fact that the eviction order itself did not meet the legal requirements and the fact that the International Labor Organization Article 169 protecting the rights of indigenous communities applies to the Garifuna in Honduras.  Charges of land theft against Barra Vieja leaders and residents were overturned in court, but the officials and developers have not given up either legal and extra-judicial efforts to displace the community; many of the villagers have temporarily left their homes due to the constant threats and harassment. 


     We believe that these three cases are indicative of the ongoing human rights crises in Honduras that rests on impunity and intimidation. There are other serious cases that we are unable to develop in this declaration today. We have seen the statement by the US Vice President Pence after the March 23, 2017 visit by President Hernandez to the US. Our experience and the experience of the Honduran individuals and organizations we know contradicts Mr. Pence’s assertion that there has been “important progress that Honduras has made over the past two years” in strengthening citizen security and fighting corruption, and we will continue to work to stop US military and security aid that buys bullets and tear gas to be used against the Honduran people. 

La Voz de los de Abajo
March 27, 2017
Chicago, Il USA

7 Years of Dictatorship and Coup

Near dawn on June 28 2009 the Honduran military shot its way into the Presidential residency of Manuel Zelaya and kidnapped the elected president of Honduras, forcing him out of the country and setting Honduras down the path that continues today. 

June 28, 2016 Tegucigalpa

Seven year later on June 28, 2016 and the dictatorship intensifies. The commemorations of its 7th year take place in the midst of intensified criminalization of the social movements, the reappearance of death squads, and threats, disappearances and murder of activists in impunity. Meanwhile Juan Orlando Hernandez consolidates control of not only the Executive branch and ministries but also the Congress, the Supreme Court and other judicial entities, the Electoral Tribunal and all the expanded military and repressive forces in the country. 

Tegucigalpa

The La Voz de los de Abajo fact finding and accompaniment mission, accompanied the mobilization for the coup anniversary in Tegucigalpa; there were other mobilizations around the country.  

La Voz accompanying CNTC on June 28, 2016

We met with Bertha Oliva of the human rights organization COFADEH who reiterated to us her view (also published in El Libertador newspaper on June 28) that Honduras has not recovered from the collapse caused by the overthrow of Manuel Zelaya’s government and that the institutional break down in the country has benefited the cupola of power and those running the country while the crimes against the opposition continue and are unpunished. The leaders and members of the indigenous Lenca organization COPINH and of the campesino organization the CNTC stressed that the big landowners, Congressional powers like the Vice President of the Congress, Gladys Aurora, and the Honduran and multinational corporations have all benefited from the last seven years of land grabbing concessions for mining and hydroelectric power and African palm production. 

Students mobilize June 27 at the University
(Photo from Honduras Tierra Libre)

The students and teachers in the country continue to be threatened, arrested and disappeared for opposing the privatization of education and the destruction of university democracy and autonomy. The government is shutting down oppositional media like TV Globo and journalists continue to be threatened and murdered. 

June 28 Tegucigalpa

On top of this, the population in general, especially the poor - who are a majority of the population are finding it more difficult everyday to put food on the table because of increases in costs and cuts in employment.  One young family man who works as a driver told us that just two months ago his family electricity bill was a little more than 700 Lempira a month ($35) and he had a full 30 days to pay it; the most recent bill was 1200 Lempira ($60) and the time to pay has been reduced to 15 days. We heard from people from Tegucigalpa and many other regions that Juan Orlando and his National Party continue to exploit the very poor very cynically with the “solidarity sacks” (bolsas solidarias); officials hand out small bags of basic food necessities ( a few ounces of salt, a pound of beans and rice) IF the recipient signs a National Party petition saying they favor allowing re-election. The list goes on and on - the number of outrages that we were told during our one week mission would fill many pages. 

June 28, 2016 Tegucigalpa

The resistance movement is debating strategy and tactics. While the social movements, reeling from the violence against them and the assassination of Berta Caceres, look to build regional struggles like the fight against the toll roads and to build national momentum from the grassroots struggles, part of the resistance looks toward a new electoral cycle with the hope of building and strengthening electoral opposition to put the brakes on the out of control and violent neoliberal assault. As well, part of the movement looks to do both.

Press interviews Mel Zelaya
at the march  

Juan Orlando has maneuvered to change the constitutional ban on re-elections for the Presidency and while everyone in the resistance opposes Juan Orlando’s re-election,  part of the LIBRE party is enthusiastic for the possibility of Manuel Zelaya being able to run for election again because they see that would make a real electoral opening for the people possible; others are vocal that the changing of the constitution without popular consultation along with running the risk of Juan Orlando consolidating himself in permanent power is unacceptable.  This controversy was apparent at the June 28th mobilization in Tegucigalpa where there were slogans being spray painted on the walls saying “We need Mel” and “We need Mel for President” at the same time that there were people chanting “No to re-elections”.  Zelaya was one of the speakers at the short rally and concert at the end of the mobilization. 

June 28, 2016 Tegucigalpa 

The mobilization in Tegucigalpa was full of life and spirit although smaller than some previous marches, but there had already been nearly daily protests of the students who are engaged in a fierce struggle with the Rector of the National Autonomous University system Julietta Castellanos and Juan Orlando, and the national teachers’ unions were preparing for an emergency mobilization on June 30th in what looks like renewed vigor in their fight over privatization, lay-offs and repression focused on their demand for a salary increase after the government announced very small increases. 

Nestor Aleman of COPEMH speaks
at Progreso rally

Finally,  with the murder of Berta Careers still so painfully present and the US election spotlighting Hillary Clinton, we found everyone eager to talk about the role of the US in the coup and its continuation and expansion by President Obama’s Secretary of State at the time, Ms.  Clinton and the role of US training and funding of military and police forces implicated in Berta’s murder. The new law introduced in the US Congress - The Berta Careers Human Rights Law- aimed at cutting US aid if human rights conditions are not met by the Honduran government has gotten wide press coverage in Honduras, including an article published in the main pro-government newspaper La Prensa on June 28th (from an EFE news agency article)  pointing at Chicago organizations, La Voz de los de Abajo and Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN) for working to get support for cutting the aid. 

http://www.laprensa.hn/honduras/974708-410/activistas-piden-a-eua-suspender-ayuda-a-honduras

Tegucigalpa - Forum on Human Rights in Honduras

On May 12th, the International Human Rights Observation Mission organized by COFADEH held a forum in Tegucigalpa to present its key preliminary findings and recommendations. The forum was attended by a large group of social movement rank and file and leaders including campesino organizations, teachers' unions, LGBTI, LIBRE, human rights defenders, journalists, and indigenous rights defenders (see my photos here).  The family of Berta Caceres participated from the podium. Below this introduction I am posting the English translation of journalist Giorgio Trucchi's report on the forum with a link to the original Spanish.

One of the participants in the open discussion at the  forum was Sandra Zambrano of the LGBT HIV education organization, APUVIMEH, who talked about the attacks on the LGBTI community,  well known activists like Victoria Gomez Cruz who was the first transgender woman to run for office in the primary elections for LIBRE in 2013 have had to leave the country due to threats on their lives. She also talked about the constant threats and pressures against organizations and individual defenders of human rights for LGBTI community. She and her brother José have had move two members of their family out of the country. Sadly, after the forum on May 14th came the news that Allan Yoni Banega Godoy, nephew of Sandra and José was kidnapped and later found dead in Tegucigalpa. 

Also participating in the same discussion were members of a parents and family organization "Madres y Padres de Familia" that are organized to support and defend the student movement, especially around the attacks on public education and the very violent response of the JOH government to the protests of the last few weeks. The Madre y Padres reported that in the last 3 weeks alone there have been 5 students murdered after participating in protests. They are mostly high school students and the wave of protests has to do with a new "educational reform" that requires public high school students to find two illiterate adults and teach them to read, also paying the adults their transportation costs, a meal and other expenses. Most of the public high school students come from poor families and absolutely cannot afford to pay these costs. The head of the high school teachers union (COPEMH) Jaime Rodriquez was also at the Thursday forum and he added that teachers are being accused of inciting the students and being threatened also. A week ago the JOH Education Ministry suspended Jaime's teaching license because he has been supporting the students. The suspension of his license means that he will not receive any salary. Jaime also denounced strongly the terrible violence against the youth and noted that earlier deaths of student activists remain in impunity, for example Nicole Soad Bustillo, the 13 year old murdered  a year ago, shortly after she publicly insulted and denounced Juan Orlando at a student protest. On Friday, May 13th there were reports that the student organizations in San Pedro Sula had negotiated some agreements with the Ministry of Education that may end up resolving this most recent conflict, but the struggle to defend public education will continue. The Radio Globo journalist David Romero also spoke from the floor about the criminal defamation cases against him used as a method to try and silence his voice against the government and about the violence and harassment against journalists in general. The precarious position of journalists was further illustrated by the presence of Felix Molina, journalist and community radio organizer who survived two attempts on his life on May 2nd.  -V. Cervantes  

Human Rights Hit Bottom in Honduras

by Giorgio Trucchi, May 16, 2016

Managua, Nicaragua (Conexihon)

G. Trucchi

On May 12th, as part of the International Mission for Human Rights Observation, a Forum on Human Rights in the Aguán was held in Tegucigalpa. During the activities the main findings of the Mission were presented and recommendations made, and the basis was laid for the creation of an analytic space to prevent risks for human rights defenders. 

“We are living in very difficult moments and we must work to avoid a deepening of human rights violations in Honduras,” said Bertha Oliva, Coordinator of the Committee of the Families of the Disappeared Detainees in Honduras (COFADEH) during her speech at the opening of the Forum. 

“We are putting forth all of our positive energy and we are ready to gather and transform memory, not in pain, but as a collective proposal,” stated the human rights defender.

Organized by COFADEH and made up of delegates from organizations in Europe, the United States and Latin America, among them REL-UITA(1), the Mission presented its findings to the national and international community and formulated recommendations for the State of Honduras. 

The Extractive Model - Death Projects 

According to members of the Mission, in the Lower Aguán Valley, “threats, attacks and assassination attempts continue” against campesino leaders, human rights defenders, community leaders and defenders of natural resources that are threatened by the extractive projects.”

The acceleration of granting concessions of territories in the upper regions of the Aguán Valley to mining companies, on top of the uncontrollable expansion of African Palm as a mono-crop, is responsible for an interminable wave of assassinations in the framework of an agrarian conflict that originates from the lack of access to land for thousands of campesino families. The effects of mining on water sources will deepen the social conflict and violence. 

The criminalization of the struggle for the defense of the territories and human rights as well as the systematic threats, displacement and forced evictions, exile, torture and dispossession “remain in total and absolute impunity.”, states a press communique from the Mission. 

Criminalization and Repression — Crushing Human Rights

The ever more selective persecution is participated in by “private security forces and death squads protected by the State that has militarized the region with the sponsorship and to the benefit of the regional economic powers.”, states the communique. “Sadly, we note that not only have many of the recommendations made some years ago not been implemented but that the statistics on murders have risen and impunity is absolute”, said Luis Guillermo Pérez, member of the International Human Rights Federation (FIDH). 

There is a perception of a lack of will and an investigative conflagration that was corroborated in a meeting of the Mission with local and regional authorities and that continues to repeat  and deepen the criminalization of the campesino organizations. 

Esly Banegas, from the Coordination of Popular Organization of the Aguan (COPA) explained that of the campesino leaders that signed the agreements of 2010 with the government, the immense majority have been assassinated or had to flee into either internal or external exile. 

“More that 300 colleagues are in judicial processes. They are criminalizing and assassinating us. If we don’t unite they will decimate us until we disappear.”,  said Banega sounding the alarm. 

She also noted that the agreements of 2010 as well as those of 2012 (2) for the purchase of thousands of hectares of land were never fulfilled. 

“The campesino enterprises are confronting a grave economic crisis, the product of the international price for palm oil and the lack of will on the part of the current government to create a consensus for a reduction of the (campesino ) debt. If this problem is not resolved, the situation could return again to an explosive situation”, said the leader of COPA. 

Given this situation, a demand by the Mission was proposed by the Forum: the creation of a grouping to formulate analysis to prevent risk for human rights defenders. 

Justice for Berta - No More Violence Against Copinh

The International Mission for Human Rights Observation also strongly took up the theme of the assassination of the Lenca indigenous leader, Berta Cáceres, calling it a “political crime for which the State is responsible, not only because an army official has been linked to the crime but because the State” was obligated to protect her life and physical integrity. ”

The Mission stated that it joins the call of the family and of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (Copinh) to create an international investigative commission that is autonomous from the Honduran State, “so that all the material and intellectural authors of the crime are punished”. 

The Mission also condemned the police repression unleashed against Copinh’s protests on May 9th and demanded that the government of Honduras “avoid all forms of criminalization of social protest”. 

Recommendations - The right to truth and justice is primary

Among the main recommendations formulation by the Observation Mission notable is that of the “assurance of an investigation of the crimes committed “as the premise for the guarantee of the right to truth, justice and reparation/restoration for the victims”. 

As well, that the Honduran government assures the fulfillment of the agreements signed with the campesino organizations of the Aguán, that the repression and stigmatization does not continue against those who defend their rights, as well as the guarantee of strict fulfillment of the preventative measures ordered by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IAHRC). 

Finally, it recommends the creation of mechanisms for a participatory consultations with the campesino organizations “related to the projects that are implemented in their territories”. 

http://conexihon.hn/site/noticia/derechos-humanos/derechos-humanos/derechos-humanos-en-honduras-est%C3%A1n-por-los-suelos--

Violent evictions today and campaign against international observers

May 11

The Human Rights Observation Mission spent most of the day traveling from the Aguan Valley back to Tegucigalpa where there will be a public forum on Thursday to discuss the Mission’s finding but we received news of more repression and new government attacks on human rights defenders and journalists.  

This morning, in Tutule, La Paz two campesinos from the campesino group 9th of July (9 de Julio) community were wounded when 12 police vehicles and 80 soldiers carried out a violent eviction, using bulldozers to destroy houses, crops  of fifty families who have lived and worked on the land for 7 years. The security forces fired live ammunition wounding Johnny Alfredo Mejia Torres and Edwin Murillo. At the same time  5 patrol cars arrived at the home of Wilman Chávez, General Secretary of the La Paz region of the Central Nacional de los Trabajadores del Campo (CNTC) to arrest him. 

Franklin Almendares
photo from conexihon

The National General Secretary of the CNTC, Franklin Almendares reported to the media that the men, women and children of the community were forced to run and attempt to hide in the mountains from the troops. He also reported that this eviction is to benefit a local political power, Carlos Arriaga. In a phone interview with Franklin Almendares  this evening he said that the two wounded men received treatment and will recover and that there is a court hearing tomorrow morning for those who were arrested. He called for human rights organizations both national and international to accompany the community and their organization. 

In Tegucigalpa, the General Secretary for the Administration of the Government, Jorge Ramón Hernández Alcerro held a press conference where he condemned international observers and press for “inciting violence” referring to the protests this week by COPINH that were repressed by the police. He said that he was instructing the Honduran immigration service to identify foreigners who are participating in the protests or inciting violence. At least one international observer, Giulia Fellin who has been accompanying COPINH was harassed and interfered with as she tried to go to her embassy today. Another National Party politician claimed that foreign journalists are inciting violence, creating images and causing problems for the government. With this the government continues the campaign of defamation against human rights defenders, journalists and international solidarity and opens the door to more repression against those groups as well as inciting violence against them. 

Honduras Delegation May 2015

May 25th Protest Against Corruption, Tegucigalpa

From May 22- June 2 a delegation from La Voz de los de Abajo, a member of the Honduras Solidarity Network,  traveled in Honduras, participating in events for the International Week Against Forced Disappearances with the Honduran human rights organization COFADEH and visiting other organizations in the resistance movement, human rights defenders, campesino communities under attack and the campesino political prisoner, Chabelo Morales Lopez. We were there as the protest movement against corruption and impunity was just beginning to heat up—— that movement now has grown to massive protests with many thousands of people in the streets in nearly every city in the country on a daily basis for the past three weeks.

Honduras May 2015 International Week Against Forced Disappearances Past and Present — Impunity Remains

Part of the content of this blog post  is from the Delegation Report and Statement to be published soon.

Photos of the "disappeared" at Cofadeh's 
office in Tegucigalpa

COFADEH (Committee of the Families of Disappeared Detainees) was founded in 1982 by families of people who were forcibly disappeared by military and paramilitary forces linked to the Honduran and Salvadoran military, the US supported “Contras” (a counter revolutionary paramilitary fighting against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua), and U.S. covert operations in the region. Honduras was used as a US military base against the Sandinistas and against the insurgency of the FMLN in El Salvador but was not officially at war itself. Nonetheless by the end of the conflict there were more than 200 persons documented to have been disappeared in Honduras.  Among those disappeared are Tomas Nativi - the husband of COFADEH’s coordinator, Bertha Oliva, disappeared in 1982. 

Our delegation was accompanied by COFADEH members in traveling the Ruta (Path of Historic Memory) which began in the city of Tegucigalpa in COFADEH’s office, passes their original office site near a police and Honduran Bureau of Investigation (DNIC) office. One of the COFADEH compañeras described answering the door bell at the original office in the mid-1980’s and finding a DNIC officer who immediately pointed a gun at her head and told her to deliver a message that COFADEH must stop investigating the case of one of the disappeared. She was only 14 at the time and had joined COFADEH after her brother’s disappearance.  

Delegation member at El Reventon

The Ruta de Memoria Historica then leaves the city and goes to the site of a clandestine cemetery (El Reventon) used by the Honduran military to dispose of the bodies of the disappeared. The site was discovered by COFADEH after a witness finally overcame his fear later in the 1990’s and disclosed the location. The Ruta includes two former clandestine detention and military sites (the Casa de Terror/Terror House and the Cuartel de los Contras/ Contra Barracks)  and at the end of the Ruta is the COFADEH Center against Forgetting (El Hogar en Contra el Olvido), a beautiful mountainside center for meditation, retreats and conferences with a garden of trees honoring the disappeared of the 1980s. 

El Hogar en Contra el Olvido - COFADEH

House of Terror
Blood spatters found

The most difficult part of the journey on the Ruta was visiting the “Casa de Terror” (Terror House) located not far from the cemetery on a property that was owned by a military officer and is now abandoned. This location has been visited by survivors of kidnapping and torture who confirmed that they were held there. Blood splatters that were identified by chemical testing are outlined in black marker. On the property there are two odd concrete structures— concrete boxes with concrete lids that have only a very small opening, resembling some kind of detention box. 

Delegation member at "Terror House"

One group of survivors were young high school and university students, kidnapped by masked men thought to be part of the Honduran death squad military Battalion 316. The survivors tell the story of being held for 8 days, tortured with beatings and electricity, starved and terrorized. It is believed that they were eventually released rather than being murdered only because the father of two of the students was a highly placed official in the Honduran government - he was beaten by the death squad members when the students were kidnapped from his home, but the youth were finally released.It is unknown how many people were detained at the site,  tortured and then murdered.  The presence of the disappeared is not only felt from the victims of the 1980’s who have yet to find justice for their loved ones -- new disappearances continue. 

Since the military coup in 2009 the practice of forced disappearances, detentions and torture has returned to Honduras.  On Tuesday, May 26th our delegation participated in a press conference with Bertha Oliva, coordinator of COFADEH and Jaquelin Jimenez, the sister of Donatilo Jimenez who was disappeared from his workplace, during his work shift,  on April 8 and has not been found either alive or dead. Donatilo was a long-time member of the union of employees of the National Autonomous University of Honduras (SITRAUNH) and past president of his local union in La Ceiba. Before his disappearance he told his family of labor conflicts with the university administration regarding security for workers at  the campus where he worked; the presence of organized crime on the university property and  collusion of university security guards with the criminal gangs. Donatilo was also still active in the union and was participating in a slate of workers running for positions in the regional SITRAUNH. The slate had to withdraw after his disappearance. 

Press Conference May 26th
photo by Defensores En Linea

Members of SITRAUNH from Tegucigalpa and the northern La Ceiba region attended the press conference in COFADEH’s office. They talked of the many conflicts with the university administration both regionally and at the national level, especially since the coup. The rector, Julieta Castellanos, is very close to President Juan Orlando Hernandez who recently arranged for a decision to change the government university rules so she could serve another term as rector. 

The family does not know what exactly happened to Donatilo the day he disappeared. At first local university officials claimed that he had left work in his car, although no one identified him,  which was found abandoned; later officials said that he was killed and that they have someone arrested, but with no details and without Donatilo's body.  Donatilo’s sister explained that after Donatilo’s disappearance, the university administration did not issue any statement, show any concern, investigate what happened or call for any investigation into his disappearance. When COFADEH accompanied the family to the site of his disappearance they were first denied access to search for him, then they were told they could enter but with a warning that it was unsafe which caused the team to decide not to search the extensive grounds of the campus. Donatilo's family insist that they want a real investigation that uncovers the intellectual and well as material authors of any crime. The university authorities have not only been uncooperative but the highest level administration of the National Autonomous University has had a lawsuit for “slander and damages” filed against Donatilo’s sister and his wife for their public statements about Donatilo’s concerns before he disappeared.  

Gladys Lanza at C-Libre event

The use of defamation charges is the latest weapon used by the government and oligarchy against human rights defenders, victims of abuses, and journalists. On Wednesday, May 27th, we attended an event held by the organization C-Libre, an advocate for protection of journalists and the freedom of expression, in which they presented their report on attacks against journalists for the year 2014 and also gave awards to human rights defender Gladys Lanza and journalist Gilberto Gálvez. Gladys Lanza is a member of the human rights organization VIsitación Padilla which focuses on women’s rights. She is currently facing time in jail after a prominent head of an NGO  filed a defamation lawsuit against her after her organization took on the case of a woman former employee who accused him of sexual harassment and violation of her rights. Besides Gladys Lanza and the Jimenez family, at least two journalists also are facing these charges and the indigenous and environmental activist, Bertha Caceres of the Lenca indigenous organization COPINH has been threatened with similar legal action after she denounced the murder of a member of COPINH this spring. 

COFADEH documents and maintains the historic memory of the disappeared both past and present and is a constant voice in representing the voices who demand, “they were alive when they were taken, we want them back alive”. 
They have a website  Cofadeh and the electronic press site, Defensores En Linea

More reports from the delegation coming soon
Unless otherwise noted, all photos by V. Cervantes

Victoria Cervantes

for La Voz de los de Abajo

June 11, 2015

Day 1 in Honduras - Police, Police, Police

PMOP 

 La Voz de los de Abajo is in Honduras accompanying the CNTC and the campesino communities. 

1/23 ADDENDUM:  The original post gave 1/25 as the likely vote on the military police but the vote is scheduled to take place the afternoon of 1/23. As of 2;30pm National Party did not have the necessary votes lined up and was trying to introduce a new measure calling for a public referendum on the PMOP proposal. This has been rejected so far by the other political parties. 

Tegucigalpa  -   January 21
V. Cervantes  posted 1/22/2015

Police, Police, and more Police

Arriving  at the airport in SPS  I found the airport being patrolled by the new Military Police (PMOP), plus a couple of mysterious police with “INTERPOL” stenciled on their bulletproof vests (a Honduran at the airport told me that they are really just officers from the DGIC - Criminal Investigations Directorate), and a handful of regular National Police in their office down a hallway near the car rentals and bus station. The newspapers were also focused on the police, and full of assurances by the government that everyone loves the military police (PMOP) and that the president’s proposal to change the constitution to ensure the PMOP are permanent and authorized to report directly to the president (not the usual military chain of command)  will surely pass congress. However as of today it seemed the measure was still at least 6 votes short of the 86 Juan Orlando needs to change the constitution. Opposition to the constitutional change includes the LIBRE, PAC, PINU and most of the Liberal Parties. However the Liberal Party has offered a compromise proposal of making the PMOP permanent through a constitutional change but specifying that the PMOP is part of the normal military chain of command. Juan Orlando quickly rejected that proposal. 

The PMOP were originally created under the banner of fighting crime and deployed in the city streets in areas with high crime rates. They are one of several new security forces that have been created since the 2009 coup: the Xantruch joint military-national police command in the Aguan Valley now also extended across the northern coast with a new acronym FUSINA;  the Tigres (a special National Police unit) and now the Military Police (PMOP) - the next plan is the creation of separate municipal police forces. Of course the regular National Police and the special riot police (COBRAS) are still on the streets also. 

Coming from Chicago, the rhetoric around the need for “more police” to make our lives safer sounds familiar; it’s a constant theme in every mayoral election, but just like in Chicago, having more police hasn’t helped Honduras.  In Honduras there are a dizzying array of different uniforms and weapons on the streets with all the police entities, but all the police forces seem to suffer from the same problem of corruption and  human rights violations, not a surprise in that there has not been any change for the better in Honduras and impunity continues to rule. 

Honduran human rights defenders and activists in the social movements seem to agree on the analysis that Juan Orlando is setting up conditions for a more open permanent dictatorship (there is also a proposal to change the constitution to allow presidential re-election) and that the uncontrolled extreme neoliberal programs of privatization, model cities, mono-cultivation  in agriculture, mining, ad naseum is the larger goal— (yes its true that the coup in 2009 tried to justify Zelaya’s overthrow by accusing him of trying to change the constitution to allow reelection. He wasn’t talking about re-election but JOH is). 

Thousands of public employees are being laid off 

The vote on the PMOP proposal will probably be on January 25 Juan Orlando and his National Party (PN) are threatening members of the National Congress who vote against it with losing government funds for electoral campaigns and projects in their provinces; according to local press reports congress members have also been offered money to vote with the PN. JOH proposed having a secret vote but that seems unlikely. Opposition members from the resistance political party LIBRE and the Anti-Corruption Party (PAC) are denounced in the press and by the PN as being opposed to the proposal because they are tied to organized crime. The press has published the results of an opinion poll that the government claims shows majority support for the PMOP and has threatened to take their proposal to a public referendum if the Congress doesn't pass it.  

LIBRE held a press conference yesterday denouncing these attacks and calling for the JOH government to abide by the Cartegena Agreement which guaranteed  certain rights and protection to Zelaya and the resistance political party.  A group of congressmen and women from LIBRE and PAC filed a formal complaint of defamation against Juan Orlando Hernandez with the justice department today.

Meanwhile another related topic in the press and under discussion in Honduras is what had seemed to some like a landmark case in which the victims of repression actually managed to get military personnel taken to court -

the case of Ebed Yanes, a 15 year old  Honduran student who was shot to death by Honduran military when he went through a road block without stopping. The judges ruled on Tuesday that one of the soldiers is guilty of homicide but then freed the other two soldiers who also fired at Ebed,  claiming that the prosecutors didn't charge them correctly, although the judge had other options besides dismissing charges. It was never disputed that all three soldiers opened fire. The father of Ebed stated that they had hoped that their case would be an exception and really receive justice " but we can't be the exception and we are another part of the statistics of cases of impunity that our country has"
 (source: defensoresenlinea.com)

Seems like once again a good time to look hard at the US governments stubborn defense and support for coup governments, militarization and impunity in Honduras - could it be that the US is just as anxious to push the neoliberal program  and also doesn't mind the human cost.